Electrical connectors generally include a dielectric housing having electrically conductive terminals mounted therein and electrically connected within the housing to lead wires of an electrical cable. The connector is configured for mating With a complementary connector or other electrical component.
Electrical connectors often are employed in applications where relatively frequent mating and unmating of the connector to its complementary connector is likely. Although the connector housing and the terminals therein can be designed to accommodate frequent connection and disconnection, the connectors, themselves, often are not constructed to provide strain relief or protection from the environment. Therefore, forces exerted on the lead wires, such as pulling on the cable external to the connector housing or water and other fluids contacting the terminals, can damage the electrical connections within the housing.
Consequently, various structures, such as backshells, have been used with electrical connectors to provide a degree of strain relief and to thereby prevent damage due to physical and environmental forces exerted on an electrical cable. In addition, such structures have been designed so that the cable can exit the shell in different orientations or angles relative to a center line of the electrical connector, such as providing either "90.degree. or 180.degree. " cable exiting. Still further, it has become desirable to use or make accommodations for using flexible cable ties to secure the cable to the strain relief shell, the cable ties often being conventional separate ratcheted tie devices.
Various problems have been encountered with strain relief shell structures of the character described above and which have been heretofore available. One of the problem areas is in strain relief shells which provide for plural cable exiting orientations (e.g. 90.degree. and 180.degree. cable exiting). At least a pair of openings are provided in the shell and through which the cable can exit. When the cable exits through one of the openings, the other opening should be sealed or closed so that access cannot be readily gained to the interior of the shell. Heretofore, separate plug devices have been employed to close the non-used opening. These plug devices add considerably to the cost of the overall shell construction, and the plugs are easy to lose or be misplaced. Another problem is that such openings are of a given size and, when a smaller cable (i.e. a cable with a smaller number of discrete lead wires) is used with the strain relief shell, the "used" opening is to big and also does not seal the interior of the shell. Still further, prior strain relief shells provide cable tie holding means which usually are on the exterior of the shell or protrude from the exterior of the shell, resulting in projections upon which other wires or extraneous components can become caught or snagged in particular environments. Still another problem is that prior shells allowed an opening to remain in order to allow a thumb easy access to the release portion of the latch. This opening allowed the outside environment to enter and, in some instances, deteriorate the terminals.
This invention is directed to solving the above problems and satisfying the need for a simple, effective strain relief shell, particularly affording multiple cable exiting orientations.